APA Amicus Briefs by Year

Listing in reverse chronological order of APA amicus briefs. Each of the titles below links to a one-page summary. Selected full-text briefs are linked below. Please note that the PDF files may take time to download, as they are very large files.

Rivera v. Illinois [Docket No. 2-09-1060]
[Appellate Court of Illinois, Second Judicial District/brief filed 7/10] — At issue before the Court is the reliability of a legally voluntary confession in light of new evidence of innocence.
Year of Decision: 2011
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 1.2MB)

Planned Parenthood et al. v. Mike Rounds et al. [Docket Nos. 09-3231, 09-3233, and 09-3362]
[United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit/brief submitted but not accepted 4/10] — Addresses the constitutionality of a South Dakota statute that required physicians to warn women considering an abortion that suicide or suicidal ideation are known medical risks of abortion.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 106KB)

In Marquez v. Estate of Garcia [Docket No. B221965] (2010)
[Court of Appeal of the State of California Second Appellate District, Division Seven/brief filed 3/10] — Addresses the confidentiality of patient records and the deposition of a psychotherapist who handled a patient’s case.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 3.1MB)

Boseman v. Jarrell [Docket No. 416PA08-2] (2010)
[North Carolina Supreme Court/brief filed 3/10] — Addresses a case in which a conservative advocacy group seeks to invalidate an adoption order by which a biological mother and her lesbian partner documented their family relationship.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 1.2MB)

Graham v. Florida [Docket No. 08-7412] and Sullivan v. Florida [Docket No. 08-7621] (2010)
[Supreme Court of the United States/brief filed 7/09] — Whether the fundamental principles in the U.S. Supreme Court 2005 decision in Roper v. Simmons that declared the death penalty unconstitutional for juveniles should also be applied to sentences of life without the possibility of parole for those who committed crimes as juveniles.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 155KB)

Panetti v. Quarterman, 127 S.CT. 2842 (2007)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 2/07] — At issue is the appropriate standard for determining the level of mental illness that should preclude execution, as well as the issue of how to define the factors that should be assessed in such a case.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 147KB)

Bodell v. Superior Court, (unpublished) (2007)
[Court of Appeal of the State of California, 2nd Appellate District/letter in support of cert filed 1/07] — Whether the Superior court may compel the production of psychiatric and medical records upon a mere showing of “relevance” and with no stated compelling public interest.
Letter of petition for review (PDF, 365KB)

Clark v. Arizona, 548 U.S. 735 (2006)
[U.S. Supreme Court/APA signed onto brief filed 1/06] — At issue is the scope of the constitutional duty of states to allow evidence of sanity to be used as a defense in criminal cases relevant to the intent element of a charged crime.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 141KB)

Andersen v. King County, 158 Wn.2d 1 (2006)
[Supreme Court of the State of Washington/brief filed 2/05] — Addresses a challenge to the constitutionality of Washington’s statutes limiting the right to marry to opposite-sex couples.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 496KB)

Roper v. Simmons, 125 S.Ct. 1183 (2005)
[U.S. Supreme Court/filed 7/04] — Whether the imposition of the death penalty on an individual who was 17 years old when he committed a murder constitutes “cruel and unusual” punishment, and is thus barred by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 222KB)

Comfort v. Lynn, 418 F.3d 1 (2005)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit/brief filed 6/04] — Addresses a school voluntary desegregation plan in Lynn, Mass. that uses race as a factor in assigning children to K-12 schools in the event that they request a school transfer.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 2.3MB)

Ewing v. Goldstein [120 Cal.App.4th 807] (2004)
[California Supreme Court/letter in support of petition for review filed 9/04] — Addresses review of a decision that extends California’s duty to warn statute from communications from the patient to the therapist to include communications about the patient from a third party.
Letter of petition for review (PDF, 112KB)

Sell v. U.S., 539 U.S. 166 (2003)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 12/19/02] — This case addresses whether a criminal defendant should be involuntary medicated for the purpose of restoring the defendant to competency so that he can stand trial.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 2.1MB)

Boy Scouts of America, National Capital Area Council v. Pool, 809 A.2d 1192 (2002)
[D.C. Court of Appeals/APA brief filed 2/26/02] — Addresses the Boy Scout's claim that the decision of the District of Columbia's Commission on Human Rights that the BSA is subject to D.C. law against discrimination and violated the law in terminating all relationships with two gay former Eagle Scouts, is contrary to the Supreme Court precedent in Dale v. Boy Scouts of America and infringes on its First Amendment right to freedom of association.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 313KB)

In re. Adoption of Luke, 640 N.W.2d 374 (2002)
[Nebraska Supreme Court/APA brief filed 9/01] — This case involves an adoption proceeding commenced by the lesbian partner of a child's natural mother. The case challenges the issue that second-parent adoptions must be denied when the co-parents are gay or lesbian.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 127KB)

U.S. v. Gomes, 289 F.3d 71 (2002)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit/brief filed 9/01] — Addresses Whether a criminal defendant can be involuntarily medicated in order to restore the defendant to competency
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 119KB)

Levy v. Edelhofer (no published decision) (2001)
[Fourth District Court of Appeal, State of California/briefs filed 11/13/00 & 12/4/00] — The case presents the questions of: (1) whether the client/therapist privilege applies to the communications of therapist to the client, (2) whether a court should evaluate communications in therapy to decide whether they are "therapeutic" before deciding whether they are privileged, and (3) whether psychotherapists owe a general duty of care to third parties, or whether psychotherapists owe a general duty of care to their patients' former therapists with whom they have no contractual relationship.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 47KB)

Ford v. Norton, 107 Cal. Rptr. 2d 776 (2001)
[Court of Appeal of the State of California/brief filed 1/6/00] — The case raises the issue of the scope of psychologists' practice (i.e., whether a clinical psychologist is authorized to order the early release of a patient who is hospitalized involuntarily).
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 559KB)

Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 3/29/2000] — Whether the Boy Scouts' claim that the recent New Jersey Supreme Court's decision, that the Boy Scouts of America is subject to the State's Law Against Discrimination and violated the law in expelling an assistant scoutmaster because he stated publicly that he is gay, infringes upon its First Amendment right to freedom of association.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 556KB)

Hudgins v. Moore (1999)
[Supreme Court of South Carolina/briefs filed 2/98 and 2/99] — Whether the prosecution could use raw MMPI-A test materials, administered to determine the defendant's competency to stand trial, to argue at trial that the defendant admitted to being a liar.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 196KB)

Olmstead v. L.C. (1999)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 3/99] — Whether the Americans With Disabilities Act compels a state to provide treatment for mentally disabled patients in a community placement rather than a state mental institution when that is an appropriate treatment option.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 1MB)

Boswell v. Boswell (1998)
[Maryland Court of Appeals/brief filed 7/98] — Whether a gay father may be denied overnight visitation with his children and visitations in the presence of his male partner.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 356KB)

Delong v. Delong (1998)
[Missouri Supreme Court/brief filed 6/98] — Whether a lesbian mother may be denied custody solely on the basis of her sexual orientation rather than on the basis of what is in the best interests of the child.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 218KB)

Jaffee v. Redmond (1996)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 1/96] — Whether a psychotherapist-patient privilege was recognized under Rule 501 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to review a decision of the Seventh Circuit that recognized the existence of a psychotherapist-patient privilege and held that confidential communications of a police officer with a licensed social worker were protected from compelled disclosure.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 1MB)

Romer v. Evans (1996)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 6/95] — Whether an enacted state constitutional amendment prohibiting the state and all local governmental entities from enacting, adopting or enforcing any law or policy protecting lesbians, gay men and bisexuals from discrimination violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it burdens the fundamental right of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals to seek such legal protections.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 551KB)

Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc. (1993)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 4/93] — Whether a sexual harassment plaintiff must prove not only that the conduct complained of would have offended a reasonable victim, and that the plaintiff was in fact offended, but also that the conduct caused the plaintiff to suffer serious psychological injury.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 343KB)

Chandler Exterminators v. Morris (1992)
[Georgia Court of Appeals/brief filed 12/90 & Georgia Supreme Court/brief in support of petition for reconsideration filed 6/92] — Whether the lower court erred in rejecting the testimony of a neuropsychologist concerning the causes of brain damage as a result of exposure to the neurotoxic substance Aldrin and ruling that psychologists are not competent to testify as to the organic causes of psychological dysfunction by stating "medical causation is not a subject within the scope of psychological expertise."
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 1.2MB)

Soroka v. Dayton Hudson Corp. d.b.a. Target Stores (1992)
[California Supreme Court/APA filed 1/92 letter in support of cert. petition. Although review was granted, the case was settled in 7/93 without an APA brief filed] — Whether certain portions of the MMPI and the California Psychological Inventory administered to job applicants (i.e., questions that facially and in isolation suggest they are related to religious and sexual matters) violate the privacy provisions of the California Constitution and certain anti-discrimination laws.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 37KB)

Miller v. City of Poughkeepsie (1991)
[New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division/brief filed 12/91] — Whether the State of New York and the federal government consider "medical treatment" to include services provided by a psychologist.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 600KB)

Bucy v. Bucy (1990)
[Connecticut Court of Appeals/brief filed 2/90] — Whether expenses incurred in psychotherapy for the treatment of eating disorders are "medical expenses" within the meaning of a separation and support decree.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 199KB)

Hodgson v. State of Minnesota (1988) & (1990)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit/brief filed 3/87 & U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 9/89] — Whether a Minnesota statute requiring physicians to notify the parents of all unemancipated minors under the age of 18 at least 48 hours before performing an abortion was unconstitutional (companion case to Ohio v. Akron)
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 318KB)

Maryland v. Craig (1990)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 3/90] — Whether certain procedural protections such as the use of one-way close circuit television may be afforded to the victims of child abuse when testifying against the accused individual.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 435KB)

BenShalom v. Marsh (1989)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit/brief filed 3/89] — Whether the U.S. Army may constitutionally deny reenlistment to any serviceperson who declares him/herself to have a homosexual orientation.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 646KB)

Watkins v. United States Army (1989)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit/brief filed 8/88] — Whether U.S. Army regulations requiring the discharge of lesbians and gay men and barring them from reenlisting were unconstitutional.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 1.5MB)

United States v. Charters (1988)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit/brief filed 6/88] — Whether a hospitalized patient has a federal constitutional right to refuse antipsychotic drugs unless the patient has been found incompetent to make treatment decisions or is imminently dangerous to self or others.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 510KB)

Insurance Board v. Muir (1987)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit/brief filed 8/86] — Whether employee benefit plans issued by private employers but administered by fiscal intermediaries are subject to ERISA or constitute the business of insurance, thus saving the state benefits laws from preemption (the main issue for psychology was whether ERISA exempts insurance carriers from complying with psychologists' freedom of choice laws and mandated mental-health benefit laws.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 570KB)

Kentucky v. Stincer (1987)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 1/87] — Whether a defendant accused of sexually abusing a child has the right to be present at a pretrial hearing at which a child is questioned to determine competence to testify at trial.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 433KB)

Estate of Davis v. Yong-Oh Lhim (1986)
[Michigan Supreme Court/brief filed 7/86] — Whether a psychotherapist is liable under tort law for the standard of care concerning the discharge of patients from mental hospitals and not a therapist's duty to warn of potential danger.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 957KB)

Smith v. Murray (1986)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 12/85 under Smith v. Sielaff] — Whether information the defendant provides to a mental health professional for the purpose of diagnosis or assessment incident to preparing a defense to a charge of a capital offense can be used against him by the State to establish an aggravating circumstance during the death penalty phase.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 373KB)

Dept. of Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms v. Galioto (1986)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 2/86] — Whether provisions of a federal crime statute which permanently prohibited any individual adjudicated as suffering from a mental defective or committed to any mental institution from receiving, transporting or shipping a firearm or ammunition in interstate commerce or being sold a firearm was unconstitutional.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 1.42MB)

Ake v. Oklahoma (1985)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 6/84] — Whether an indigent defendant has the constitutional right to the appointment of a mental health professional at the State's expense to help the defendant prepare an insanity defense and rebut evidence of future dangerousness.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 602KB)

Oregon v. Miller (1985)
[Oregon Supreme Court/brief filed 12/84] — Whether psychotherapist-patient privilege extended to a receptionist and to statements made to a psychiatrist that were not for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 539KB)

Alaska v. R.H. Wetherhorn (1984)
[Alaska Court of Appeals/brief filed 10/83] — Whether admissions of child abuse made during either voluntarily-obtained or court-ordered therapy are admissible in a criminal trial or protected by the state's privileged communication statutes and the right against self-incrimination under the state and/or federal constitution.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 609KB)

New York v. Uplinger (1984)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 12/83] — Whether a New York Loitering law that prohibited loitering for the purpose of engaging in "deviate" sexual intercourse was unconstitutional.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 1.4MB)

United States v. Leatherman (1984)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia/brief filed 11/83] (case dismissed when Leatherman escaped from hospital in 2/84) — Addresses whether a prisoner found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed for treatment can refuse antipsychotic medications.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 485KB)

United States v. Lyons (1984)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth District/brief filed 11/83] — Whether evidence of drug addiction should be admitted when the defendant raises an insanity defense.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 892KB)

Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, Inc. (1983)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 8/82] — Whether the City of Akron's adoption of an informed consent requirement for abortions, which mandated that the individual providing pre-abortion counseling must be the woman's attending physician (as opposed to other qualified professionals) and specified the kind and substance of the information to be presented, was constitutional.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 334KB)

Forrest v. Ambach (1983)
[N.Y. Supreme Court/briefs filed 9/80, 7/81 & N.Y. Supreme Court, Appellate Division/brief filed 12/82] — Whether the New York Commissioner of Education acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner in not permitting a school psychologist to challenge her employment termination for due disagreeing with the State Commissioner regarding the statutory requirements for services to handicapped children.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 277KB)

Hedlund v. Superior Court of Orange County (1983)
[California Supreme Court/brief filed 10/83] — Whether a "foreseeable" bystander in a close relationship to the victim of an assault by a patient can bring a cause of action against the patient's psychotherapist for emotional injury resulting from a failure to warn.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 112KB)

Metropolitan Edison Co. v. People Against Nuclear Energy (and United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. People Against Nuclear Energy) (1983)
[U.S. Supreme Court/briefs filed 9/82 and 1/83] — Whether there are situations in which an environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act must consider the effects of a proposed action on psychological health.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 537KB)

United States v. Byers (1982)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia/brief filed 10/81] — Whether a prosecution-requested, court-ordered clinical interview conducted in custodial confinement of a criminal defendant who was offering an insanity defense endangered the privilege against self-incrimination protected by the Fifth Amendment and the right to assistance of counsel protected by the Sixth Amendment.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 608KB)

Youngberg v. Romero (1982)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 9/81) — Whether mentally retarded residents of state hospitals have the constitutional right to be free from undue bodily restraint, the right to personal security and protection, and the right to adequate treatment.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 735KB)

Harris v. McRae (1980)
[U.S. Supreme Court/APA signed onto a brief filed 7/80] — Whether (1) a state participating in the Medicaid program were required to pay for medically necessary abortions, and (2) whether the Hyde Amendment denying federal reimbursement for such abortions was unconstitutional.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 1.27MB)

Detroit Edison Co. v. National Labor Relations Board (1979)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit/brief filed 1976 & U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 1977] — Whether an order of the National Labor Relations Board that required Detroit Edison to provide to a union with copies of an actual test battery and employees' raw scores and test papers without their consent should be enforced in light of confidentiality and test security concerns.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 305KB)

Hutchinson v. Proxmire (1979)
[U.S. Supreme Court/brief filed 2/79] — Whether a research scientist is a "public figure" for the purposes of libel law if he is supported by public funds, thereby rendering it difficult for a scientist to sue for libel.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 475KB)

Wyatt v. Aderholt (1973)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit/brief filed 11/72] — Whether (1) mentally impaired individuals who are involuntarily confined in state institutions have the right to treatment, and (2) confinement without treatment deprives such individuals of their constitutional rights.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 1.4MB)

United States v. Brawner (1972)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia/brief filed 5/71] — Whether in insanity defense cases (1) the medical model should be abandoned, and (2) the results of psychological tests like the Rorschach should be admissible.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 649KB)

Jenkins v. United States (1962)
[U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia/brief filed 2/62] — Whether a psychologist is competent to state professional opinions as an expert witness concerning the nature, and existence or non-existence, of mental disease and defect.
Full-text amicus brief (PDF, 201KB)